ThunderBolt - Alumni & Friends Newsletter

Stories of TSC/TSU/Trine love - Sweethearts

Bill, ’57 BAD, & Rosemary (Doll) O’Brien

Bill O’Brien met his wife Rosemary (Doll) while he was a bartender at Bledsoe’s Beach, working to finance his schooling. She was a local girl, from Coldwater, Mich.

In 1957, Rosemary became the Alpha Sigma Phi Sweetheart, and she and Bill married the same year. They will celebrate 56 years of marriage this year.

They have two grown daughters and two granddaughters, and they reside in Wisconsin. The photo is Bill and Rosemary with granddaughter Joanne.

Brian, ’08 ME, & Cheyenne, ’06 CRJ, (Cook) Grimm

Brian and I met on the second day of freshman orientation in 2003. We met at the orientation for students living in Stewart Hall. I went to orientation with my roommate and the rest of the girls from my floor, but there wasn't room left at the table where they sat, so I sat at the table next to them.

There was a guy sitting at the table and then his roommate joined us. The roommate turned out to be Brian. He sat down and started talking my ear off, which was odd for Brian because anyone who knows him knows he's not a talker. But he introduced himself and his roommate, Jake, to me and told me which floor they lived on and told me to visit anytime. I thought he was cute, but didn't think much of it.

When orientation was over, I was speaking to my roommate and told her I was tired and wanted to go back to our room for a nap. Brian overheard me and said “I'd like to take a nap with you”. I was very surprised, but thought it was funny and very gutsy. So, I decided to give him a shot. Our first date was to the free movies up town where we saw “Freddie Vs. Jason.

”We met on Sunday, Aug. 16 and were officially dating by Aug. 22 and have been together ever since. We have been together 9 1/2 years now. Brian proposed to me on Feb. 24, 2006 the night of Greek Formal.

Brian and I started college at the same time but I graduated in three years and Brian finished his degree in five. I took a job in Fort Wayne so that we could stay together while he finished school.

We got married on Sept. 29, 2007, during fall break of Brian′s last year at TSU so that we could have a few days for a honeymoon. We were married in Waterloo. Our reception was at the Auburn Cord Duesenberg Museum in Auburn, the city in which we live.

Brian always says the guys at TSU greatly outnumbered the girls so when you saw a cute one you had to talk to her before five other guys tried to. I am just thankful that I sat down at the right table that day.

Our family has grown now and includes two children, a son named Killian who just turned 4, and an 8–month–old daughter named Gemma.

Greg, ME ’04, & Kristen (Fadely), MGT ’03, Lopshire

Back in the day, Skip’s was the place to be on weekends. My Phi Sig sisters and I headed up there to have some fun on a Saturday night. I was out on the dance floor with my sorority sister, Kelly Ellis, and noticed an unfamiliar guy wearing a nice blue shirt.

I’d never seen him before and asked Kelly if she knew who he was. It was rare to not know someone at such a small school, especially after working in the Financial Aid office for three years. She said it was Greg Lopshire and she’d had some classes with him. I told her she had to introduce me. He ended up on the dance floor talking to Kelly and that’s when she took the time to introduce me.

From that moment on, we spent the rest of the evening talking about mutual friends and getting to know each other. Once Skip’s closed for the night, we went to get some food. Where else would you go for your first date at 3 a.m. but the local truck stop? We are now coming up on nine years since that night and it feels like yesterday. Who would’ve ever thought I would’ve met my husband at Skip’s during my Tri-State years?

Scott Gruner, ′98 BSBA–AC, and Angela Gruner, ′01 BS–ElEd

I first met Scott at freshman orientation in 1997. He was a resident director of (then) Stewart Hall, working the registration table and handing out student IDs to the incoming freshmen.

He was very talkative, but I was not as much because I thought he was a professor.

During fall, we rarely saw one another on campus, but in the winter quarter we saw each other more often in the entrance way of Shambaugh Hall. (Later, we discovered we had asked a mutual friend about each other.)

Finally, in December, right before winter break, he stopped me and asked for my phone number. I told him I didn′t just give it to anyone. We had our first date soon after and, as they say, the rest is history.

Craig, CRJ ’06, & Megan (Davasher), PSY ’07, Davis

We met the first day of classes in 2003. Craig was a sophomore who transferred from Defiance, Ohio, and I was a freshman. We were just friends and started dating during spring break 2004.

Some of our favorite memories are being a part of Greek life; Craig was a Phi Kappa Theta and I was a Phi Sigma. Craig and I had similar majors (He, criminal justice and I, psychology) so our classes often were together.

We got married in 2006 while we both were still attending school and lived off campus then. We have been married for almost seven years and have four children.

William, EE ’84 & Deborah, (Mates), BAD ’84, Shenberger

I graduated at the end of the winter trimester 1983-84 school year with a BSEE. Deborah graduated at the end of the spring trimester 1983-84 school year with a BSBA.

Deborah started in fall 1979 and I started in winter 1979. She is originally from Carey, Ohio. I am from Orleans County, N.Y. We started going out the fall trimester of 1980 and were engaged before we graduated. We were one of the few well-known couples during our time at TSU.

We got married on Sept. 22, 1984, in Carey, and lived first in Kokomo, Ind. Now we have been living in Apex, N.C., since December 1998.

Our three children, now young adults, are Westley, 20; Bethany, 23; and William Jr., 26.